1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to drawers such as used by cashiers for through-the-wall transactions with customers, and more particularly to a drawer assembly having improved isolation between the spaces outside and inside the wall during operation of the drawer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are a few patents of which I am aware from prior work and which show sliding drawers or trays. An example is a German Offenlegungsschrift No. 1 808 371 dated May 21, 1970 cited in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,773 and which discloses a trough below the security screen between a customer and cashier and where a sliding tray is mounted and operated from the cashier's side. A pivoted plate over the tray is so arranged that when closed there is a flat surface; pivoted one way it opens the trough to the client; pivoted the other it seals the opening to the client. The pivoting action is determined by the position of the sliding tray.
Another through-the-wall device is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,247 issued Sept. 28, 1982. That unit involves a vertical hinge about which a sector shaped shelf is swingable. In that example, the housing projects through the wall. For some situations, it is desirable that there be no projections external to the wall surface. A transaction drawer having curved front edges to operate a door is shown on page 7 of a catalog of Creative Industries, Inc. of 959 North Holmes Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind. 46222. It does not have a cover over the drawer on the cashier's side of the wall.
There are publications by various manufacturers other than Creative Industries but, except for one, and I am uncertain of its date, none of them of which I am aware disclose products more pertinent to the present invention than are the most pertinent of the aforementioned references. In the one, there is a drawer with a sliding cover over the drawer. The cover slides into position over the drawer cavity as the drawer is opened. I believe the rate of siding of the cover is greater than the rate of linear movement of the drawer. In my opinion, there remains a need for a drawer which provides better isolation between the space inside and outside the building wall where the transaction is occuring. The present invention is directed to meeting that need.